University of Iowa Media
Conference
Tuesday, October 20, 2020
Iowa City, Iowa, USA
Coach Kirk Ferentz
Press Conference
KIRK FERENTZ: Good afternoon. Appreciate your
coverage of the team. Good news right now is that it is
game week. I don't know if any of us thought that was ever
going to happen, so certainly we're excited about that -- the
fact that it’s going to take place.
I think for all of us, not only in sports but just in life, it's
been an interesting path for sure, a strange path. And the
bottom line is as we move forward, it's going to stay
abnormal for sure, and everybody is going to have to just
stay very vigilant in the program and outside, and we're all
going to have to continue to adjust and adapt as we move
along. That's certainly been a big part of the last several
weeks and several months. Don't see that changing a lot.
Certainly we had our challenges during the summer from a
training standpoint, and then when the season got pushed
on August 11, that really was a low point from a football
standpoint for our team. It was obviously a significant
change when the season got reinstated, and I can't say
enough about the players and what they've done since that
time.
That being said, we still have serious concerns about our
conditioning level and have had through this entire time
just because of the lack of consistency and getting the
guys in early. For the most part I don't think it was until last
week where we really felt were at a level where we could
practice as long and as hard as maybe we would like to. At
least we were able to build up to that point, but all that
being said, all along the way, the players worked hard, they
had a great attitude, and they're clearly excited about
having a chance to play football, and we're excited about
having a chance to coach them again.
That part is all good, and I’m really proud of the guys'
efforts.
As we shift our sights to Purdue, the first thing I want to do
is extend on behalf of everybody in our program, our best
wishes to Coach Brohm. Very sorry to hear that he got hit
by the virus and hoping that he has a very quick recovery.
It's just a reminder just how real this is. It's everywhere, so
102678-2-1077 2020-10-20 20:39:00 GMT
nobody is immune from it, but certainly wish him the best
as he moves forward.
We can only have one captain go out for the toss, but we
have five, Keith Duncan will represent the special teams,
Chauncey Golston, Nick Neimann on the defensive side,
Mekhi Sargent, and Tyler Linderbaum on offense.
Like every first game, it certainly presents unique
challenges. This one is a little bit different. I can't
remember the last time we opened up with a Big Ten game
in the opener. That's going to be different for sure, raises
the stakes. This season is very different playing nine
straight Big Ten opponents.
Going into Purdue we're going into this first game with a lot
of unknowns certainly, but one consistent thing you can
say over the last three years since Coach Brohm has
gotten there, he and his staff have done a great job.
They've always had talented players and they've got some
very talented players right now.
They're very well-coached, and they have a clear identity of
what I think they want to be as a team. If you look back at
his track record, they've always been a very explosive
productive offensive outfit, and that's certainly the case.
That's what we expect from this year's Purdue team, as
well.
Offensively they have a system in place. They've been
doing it for a long time and they've been extremely
successful. They throw the ball as well as anybody that
we'll face, and they have two of the better receivers that
we've probably ever gone against at any one time.
I think back to last year about Minnesota coming in here
with a quarterback that could really throw it and two
outstanding receivers. But beyond that, a really good group
of skill players. And Purdue has good running backs, they
have other receivers that are really good, but they have
two that are as good as you'll find anywhere in the country.
That's going to be a real big challenge for our defensive
team and our team in general.
And then it's interesting on the defensive side and special
teams side they have two new coordinators there. Not only
is it a first game, but we're looking at film of players playing
in different systems and what we're going to see this week
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coming up. On the defensive side, Bobby Diaco, an Iowa
grad, has done an outstanding job in his career
coordinating defenses, and now he's at Purdue. And then
the special teams coordinator came from North Texas, and
he's had a very successful career, as well.
On both sides a lot of unknowns. We have a chance to see
some of the players that are going to be back, but we're
going to be playing different schemes, so we have a lot of
projecting in that regard.
One thing of note on the special teams, Rondale Moore is
a returner as well, besides being a great receiver. Had a
28-yard punt return against us two years ago, the biggest
one we gave up that season. He's a very dangerous player
in that regard, too.
That's kind of a little bit of a nutshell there.
The bottom line is, we're playing football and that's the best
thing right now. I'm sure it's not unique. I know all the way
through this it's not going to look the same, the crowd won't
be the same, home or away, very different experience that
way. It's just been an unusual path for everybody involved
in college football.
Common denominator is we're all excited to have a chance
to get on the field and compete. That's the exciting part.
We're looking forward to the challenge on Saturday, and
also just want to thank our fans. I know they won't be in the
stands, but I'm sure they'll be watching, and we should just
continue to appreciate their support of our team.
Q. I had a question kind of about the late-week testing
process, and that's when do your players get tested,
on Fridays and then Saturdays? And is there a fear of
fake positives or false positives -- kind of like what
happened with Nick Saban last week?
KIRK FERENTZ: Sure, our routine is that we all have a set
time during the course of the week that we get tested, and
then on Friday my understanding is it's obviously going to
have to be before we travel. So it'll be Friday and Saturday
morning. I assume at the hotel on Saturday. I haven't
looked that far down the road.
But that being said, the question about the false positive,
it's always a remote possibility. I think I heard somewhere
in the last 24 hours that right now we're conference-wise
about 98.9 percent accuracy. So no system is 100 percent
perfect that I'm aware of. I think certainly we're all learning
daily and continue to learn daily, but just my brief
knowledge of this whole thing looking across the country, I
don't think anybody has got a better system in place right
now, including in the NFL, than what we have.
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To me it's been the game changer that's allowed us to start
practice. I think it was on September 30 when we started
testing. It's what allowed us to start practicing, to limit the
contact tracing issues that were causing so many problems
and so many challenges.
That's been a big game changer, and it took a long while
for us to get there. It was a long bumpy road to get there,
but to me at least it's allowed us to have a chance to go
forward. That being said, there's no guarantees on this
thing. It's just I'm guessing the President has got pretty
good security and pretty good insulation. Anybody can get
it; that's just one reality unfortunately that we've all come to
realize.
Q. Are you guys traveling bus or charter? How healthy
are you guys? Is everybody going to be able play that
you expected to play this weekend?
KIRK FERENTZ: As far as I know we're chartering. That's
the plan right now.
Injury-wise I'm really not going to disclose anything right
now. It's like any game -- we have some guys that are out.
Once we get through the first game I'll talk a little bit more
about that. Other guys wait and see, so we'll see how this
week goes.
You throw the virus in on top of it, who knows who's going
to be there on Saturday.
Q. You had mentioned in your initial comments the
concerns about conditioning and maybe kind of
starting to be able to practice the way you want to.
Just curious what do you think the level of play is
going to be not just with your team but just around the
other teams starting in the Big Ten, based on maybe
what you saw in some other conferences that started
late but before you?
KIRK FERENTZ: I haven't watched a lot of football, but
some of the football I've seen I've actually been kind of
surprised. I thought there might be more turnovers, more
missed tackles, all that kind of thing. We'll keep our fingers
crossed. I think our guys have practiced well. I thought we
gained some ground a week ago. That was really the kind
of end of our preseason, if you will. It's hard to say. It's
really hard to say.
But one thing that became very apparent when we started
talking about practice and actually practicing, it was so
different than what we would normally do in August just
because of we were at. We had to be guarded, cautious
just how long we were out on the field, how many things
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we did with our players, just for a fear of breaking down.
All that being said, we still had more soft tissue issues than
we would like to and we've even had some surgeries on
bones in a foot, those kinds of things. More younger
players. I don't know what you attribute that to. But there's
a reason why you train. There's a reason why you train,
and it allows you to practice better, and hopefully practice
allows you to play better. One thing about that topic,
everybody has dealt with the same challenges.
Q. One follow-up on that. A lot of teams I know in
some other conferences earlier in the season
struggled a bit on special teams, and if you notice that,
did that at all change anything that you did in
preparing your special teams, maybe giving a little
more emphasis to it given the odd practice structures
that you've had since spring, summer, and fall?
KIRK FERENTZ: I think that's early-season football,
whether you have camp or not. A lot of times, turnovers,
penalties, those kinds of things are bad news for us. Any
time you enter a season or any time you play in a bowl
after a delay, I think those are always weighing heavy on
your mind. We try to make sure the players are mindful of
that. I think we've done the work to be solid in those areas,
but you never know. They have a returner, and that makes
it even -- there's a lot of things that can happen just if
you're not quick that can really change and impact of the
game.
Q. We get these updates every week from the sports
information office on how many tests and how many
positive tests, negative tests were received by the
athletic department. Can you roughly estimate what
percentage of your players and staff have had COVID,
and what you've heard maybe around the country?
KIRK FERENTZ: I think I just heard Florida is having
further issues. First of all, this is a very real thing. I think
everywhere around the country you're seeing it happen,
you're seeing games cancel. The fact that the NFL has had
some issues the last couple weeks, it just illustrates
nobody is immune to it. NBA had the best setup because
they could create a bubble, but to expect to do that with a
college football team I don't think is realistic.
We've had our share of numbers, and I won't get too
specific, but we've had our share. The one thing I would
share with you and talk freely about this is I think when we
got the news on August 11, I thought our players dropped
their guard, and maybe we did as coaches, as well.
But I think a lot of it is a mental attitude. It's not that you're
going to out-tough the virus. I don't mean it in that regard.
102678-2-1077 2020-10-20 20:39:00 GMT
I'm not talking about that. But what I'm talking about is just
being smart about what you do. Again, nobody is immune
from this, but I think all of us can try to do some things to
give ourselves a chance to be somewhat protected or at
least minimize the risk. And I think when the news of
August 11 got passed, I think everybody just had a little bit
of an, Ah, hell attitude. Like what the hell? That was a hard
thing to go through. I think we also went through a period
back in June where for a lot of our players I'm not sure it
seemed real, and then we got some guys that tested
positive.
But since we've come back and gotten going when the
season got rebooted, I think everybody has been as
vigilant as they can. We've had very little activity in that
regard. Very thankful for that. And all that being said, I
know the one thing I know is you can't rest, you can't drop
your guard, you can't go, okay, we're out of the woods.
Just like life, you're never out of the woods, and we're
certainly not out of the woods with this virus deal.
Q. Tyrone Tracy said earlier that players are going to
have the option to kneel or stand for the National
Anthem. Can you confirm that's true, and tell us how
that decision came about, I guess?
KIRK FERENTZ: Our players do a great job of listening. I
told them I thought it was best just to let it happen, but I
guess that cat is out of the bag. But the real story behind
that is we've had discussions going back the last couple
months. I say we, the leadership group, the leadership
group and myself, where we've talked about the subject
three different times and shared some information with
them and shared a letter from a veteran who felt very
strongly about nobody should kneel.
And then I'd fast forward about 12 days ago. We had a
Navy seal, 20-year Navy seal who served in two White
House administrations and strategic planning, that type of
thing, also led missions in South America, the middle east,
Asia, give an answer that was very, very different. His spin
on it was in his mind it's all about Americans being their
authentic selves, doing what they feel is best and stay true
to their beliefs.
In his words, that's what people like him fought for, so that
our country can enjoy the liberties and freedoms that are
very unique to our country. As it comes home to our
leadership group, the discussions I listened to and
participated in, on three separate occasions were
extremely impressive. Everybody was respectful of each
other's opinions, and I'm convinced right now that we'll see
a variety of stances taken by our team.
But I can also tell you that what I've heard from three
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separate meetings is everybody is respectful of each other.
Nobody is judging each other. Nobody is taking roll, any of
that kind of stuff. They're acting like a team should. I'm
extremely impressed with the way the guys have handled
it.
Q. In the past some of your best performances, some
of your team's best performances have come on the
heels of some adverse situations. That includes the
Penn State and Michigan turnaround in 2016, among
several others. What is it about your team, your
program, possibly the way you coach, that enables
your team to be able to move past those tough
situations and put themselves in a position to compete
and a lot of times win games after adverse situations?
KIRK FERENTZ: I remember hearing Aaron Kampman
years ago quoting the late Ed Thomas, his high school
coach, about there are two things that can happen when
you face a tough situation. You lay down and get in the
fetal position or you get up and go back into the fight and
you go to work. There is no option.
The bottom line is there is no option, and I think in any
circumstance, whether it's a tough thing off the field, a
tough thing on the field, it just gets back to reassessing
what happened, where are we at, and what do we need to
do to move forward. I think the common denominator in at
least my 22 years here, and I'll extend it to my time as
assistant coach, common denominator is we've had really
good players here. Like Andre Tippett, a pro Hall of Famer,
but good guys, good people on top of it. And a guy like
Andre Tippett who's zoom call with our linebackers 40
years later zooming with the linebackers here this past
off-season.
So there's just the quality of people here, be it our players
and our coaches, support staff. I think that's been a
common denominator, and I think we've all worked hard to
assess what needed to be assessed. And then more
importantly, how do we move forward, how do we better
things, how do we improve things. I stand here today and
feel very confident about where we are and feel like we got
a great group of guys. I can't say enough about the way
our players have handled the last however many months
it's been. Left here March 13th. They've done a great, great
job. That's kind of something I was banking on all along.
We've got quality people here.
Q. Given what happened in June and such, we haven't
really seen mass transfers out of the program; is that a
good sign for you, and how have you held things
together given what happened this summer?
KIRK FERENTZ: Well, you know, around June 6th I think
102678-2-1077 2020-10-20 20:39:00 GMT
it would have been, I don't do a lot of texting. Obviously I
did send a text out to our staff just saying that we had good
people in the program, what I just said, we have good
people in the program and we'll work through this, and I'm
confident in the people that we have, be it our players,
support staff, our staff.
And that's exactly what we've done. All the things I've said
publicly we've tried to put them in action, and that's the
important thing. So we've tried to do a good job of listening,
what are our players saying, how were they feeling, and
then we've tried to find solutions to make people feel like
things are a little better, but better here we can improve
things, and we'll continue to do that and continue to listen
to our players. That's the important thing.
But I also think they have a healthy respect for what has to
be done, and I don't think anybody has lost sight of the fact
this is a competitive game. And as I've said publicly at
some point, you either measure up or you don't. You make
that first down or you don't. You get the stop or you don't.
Field goal goes in or it doesn't.
They understand that. I think they have a good
understanding of that, and we'll see how it looks over the
next nine weeks. It all gets back to the quality of the
people, and that's one thing that's never changed. We've
got really good people on this football team, and guys that
want to do things right and do them together, and that's the
thing that helps me sleep every night.
Q. I've been talking to Spencer Petras' high school
coach and a teammate of his. Can you elaborate on
some of the things he's been doing at Iowa?
KIRK FERENTZ: Well, Mazzy (phonetic) first of all is a
great guy, great story. He's got a tremendous story if
you've got about an hour to listen to it, on a lot of levels.
Spencer is a great kid. He's just done a really nice job. We
obviously liked him when we recruited him, and everything
he's done since he's been here, he's grown, he's
developed, improved with each opportunity, and he's
practicing well right now.
So we have every confidence he'll play well this year. He’ll
have some ups and downs. He is a first-year player.
Everybody does. He'll be anxious and nervous on Saturday
just like all of us will. That's competition. But I think he'll do
an outstanding job, and he's worked hard. He acts like
you'd want a quarterback to act. But it's all genuine. It's not
for show or any of that kind of stuff. It's just who he is, and
we're just thrilled he's on our football team.
Q. Following up with Spencer right there, he's a new
quarterback coming in, but he certainly has a lot of
Page 4 of 6
weapons around him. How much has that helped him
throughout camp in taking over that starting role
where he's got so many weapons at receiver and
experienced running backs and a good O-line? How
much has that helped him in preparation?
KIRK FERENTZ: I think that's got to help, and then the
other part of it is we have to live up to that. We should have
a good receiver group, but we've got to go out and play,
and I have no reason to think they won't. They've been
practicing well. It's a good group of guys. Our tight ends
are doing a nice job. I wish we had two more. But we've got
two that have played and done a really good job, and
they've grown and improved. And hopefully we'll be able to
put an O-line together that can protect him and help us be
effective in the run game, as well.
So I think we have a chance to have a suitable offense, but
it's still got to come together. It's a matter of still working
hard and we've got to finish this week up at practice, but I
think all the -- we've got some experience at a lot of
positions. I left out the running backs. We have three guys
that we have a lot of confidence in, some younger guys
doing a good job. Now it's just a matter of pulling it together
and going out and executing and playing well together. It's
a good group of guys, and that's got to help him a little bit.
Q. Offensive tackles with 40 starts at Big Ten schools
don't grow on trees; what does Coy Cronk bring to you
right off the bat?
KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, as much as anything, just what
you referenced, the 40 starts, the experience. You talk
about a guy like Spencer who's never played, Coy is at the
opposite end with 40 games under his belt already. That
will be helpful to our team just to -- we lost a really good
player in Tristan who's doing really well right now, but when
you lose a guy that you could really count on who had that
experience level, it's nice to have another guy who's also
pretty experienced.
I'm not comparing the two players other than that way. So
it's good. It's certainly good. AJ on the other side is a really
experienced player, too, and he's done a very nice job
throughout this whole preseason preparation. I've got to tell
you it feels really strange seeing preseason when guys are
taking mid terms during preseason practice and we're
wearing winter coats out there to get in your car, so that's
kind of strange. But we're thrilled that Coy is here. He's a
tremendous young man.
Q. When you look at Purdue and specifically the two
receivers, they always seem to have three or four or
five that are pretty good. They provide probably a
greater challenge than even most that you've faced
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recently. With your secondary do you anticipate
playing five or even six defensive backs throughout
the game, and how does Julius Brents kind of figure
into that right now?
KIRK FERENTZ: Well, as far as Julius, he's had a really
good preseason, so we're excited about that. He's doing
really well. Last year he had a hard time getting things
together, injuries and different -- just never kind of got in
stride, but he's done a good job here this year, this
preseason period.
I was trying to think about their two receivers. I was going
to say they're the best we've faced except we've faced
Landry and Odell Beckham. Those two guys are pretty
good, they just couldn't get the ball to them. I'm thinking
about Minnesota last year where they did get the ball to
both those guys and they had other guys that were good,
too, so it's kind of a comparable -- there's a reason why
Minnesota scored as many points as they did last year and
you look at Purdue and they've got a bunch of guys that
can really go at the receiver position. But those two guys
are marquee players. We tried to recruit Bell and just didn't
have any luck, but what a great player he is, too. We had a
hard time defending him last year alone, same thing with
Moore the year before that and now you've got a couple
quarterbacks that can play.
They're a good -- expect them to be a very explosive
offensive football team. And to answer your question, we'll
play -- I'm sure we'll play some five and six DB stuff.
Q. It seemed like you had a pretty good battle at guard
that Cole Banwart and Kyler Schott ended up getting
the starting jobs. What separated them at the end, and
are you going to think about maybe using a rotation
during the first game to kind of get some of those
other guys out there, as well?
KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, so Banwart started because I left
him off the two deep last time we met, right, and I
apologize for that. But yeah, to answer your question, we
have some competition going on, and I really don't know
who's going to start on the offensive line, but you've got
those guys, you've got Kallenberger, you've got certainly
Cody in the mix, Justin Britt. So we've got a handful of
guys, and I'm not sure what the starting lineup is going to
be.
But to your second point, I think, yeah, you'll probably see
some rotation going on because I think those guys are so
close there's not really a reason not to play some of the
guys some multiple reps.
Q. A lot of times you'll kind of joke that you'll sleep
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well on weeks you've practiced well. Do you think
you're going to be sleeping well this Friday night and
what are you worried about the most?
KIRK FERENTZ: Well, the one difference is I didn't have
to worry about taking a COVID test on Saturday morning,
for myself or anybody else. That's a new dimension. And
those things you can't control, but I guess we've had
people get appendicitis before and things like that, random
things. But you're never out of the woods. That's one thing
life teaches you.
Certainly the virus has taught us that. But all we can do is
worry about what we can control, and as I told --
referenced in the answer to Mike that I'm really proud of
our players. There's no guarantees, but I think they've
been very mindful about how they're doing things and
trying to stay as much out of harm's way as possible.
But as football players and a football team the best thing
we can do is try to practice. I thought we had a good day
today. It was a first really heavy workday of this week.
Hopefully we'll do it tomorrow and hopefully -- just got done
watching the film, a lot of things we need to clean up, so
hopefully tomorrow a lot of those things will look a little
better than they looked today.
We'll be saying that in week nine. I'm guessing this is one
of those years where because of the circumstances it
probably won't be as crisp as you hope. Hopefully we'll be
able to gain ground each and every week and that's going
to really come back to how we practice each and every
day, whether we're going hard or just out there going light.
Either way there is certainly an opportunity to improve
every time we're out there.
Q. When you look at some of the young linebackers
you have, Justin Jacobs was a guy that you highly
recruited, Ohio State came in late, but you were able to
keep him; and then Jay Higgins in Indianapolis was a
tackling machine his last couple of years. If either one
of them have to play and potentially play a lot, do you
feel like they can do the job, and what do they bring to
the field if they are on the field?
KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, they'll both be there Saturday
unless something happens between now and then. My
guess is they'll be on the field in some form or fashion,
special teams, you never know. But both have been guys
we've really enjoyed working with. Jay has only been here
a short while, and certainly Justin has been here now for a
year plus. Happy with the progress. Happy with what we've
seen. I'll throw Barrington Wade in there who's kind of an
older guy, kind of forgotten in some ways because of the
Cash position. I think he is one of our more improved
102678-2-1077 2020-10-20 20:39:00 GMT
players playing with a real good confidence right now. I
think it's fair to say that all those guys have a chance to be
on the field and really pleased with the progress all three of
them have made, Jay being the youngest of the group and
probably the most to learn still.
Q. You mentioned how this is unusual having a Big
Ten game to start off with. Sometimes that even
increases the urgency for some players, but I'm
curious how that affects your evaluation. It's still a first
game, unusual circumstances, but obviously jumping
right into a conference opponent.
KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, it's just the stakes are a little bit
higher because if you want to win the Big Ten West or the
Big Ten East, it helps to win those games. That's just
simple math there.
It's not like playing a non-conference team. Not that those
games don't mean a lot, too, but they don't apply to the
conference race. Everything this year being condensed is
just that much more significant.
But all that being said, you can't change your approach.
Our opener last year, the year before, we were trying to
win, trying to play our best football, and that goal remains
the same. There's only so much you can do in a given
week, no matter who we're playing we want our guys to try
to prepare as well as possible. I expect the coaching staff
is going to do the same thing and hopefully we'll go out and
play as well as possible. The difference this year is there's
no really mapping out of the schedule.
It's not like three games, a bye week, four more games,
another bye week, all this and that. It's a nine-game march.
That's all it is. You don't really have to think too hard about
that. Only variable this year is we've got three short weeks,
two Friday games and an election-day game. That's a little
bit of a wrinkle in there, make an adjustment on that, but
it's basically nine weeks straight ahead, don't look back.
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